Oxford United are to quit the Manor Ground for a new 15,000 all-seater at Minchery Farm during the season, while Reading are preparing for their last campaign at Elm Park. On the same day Sunderland play host to Manchester City at the Wearmouth Stadium. Following a simultaneous exit from Roker Park and the Premiership, Peter Reid’s side may have to repeat their promotion of two seasons ago if a 42,000 capacity is not to look wildly over-ambitious. Stoke’s 28,000-seat Britannia Stadium will be situated on the new Stanley Matthews Way.

After moving half a mile from the Victoria Ground, their home since 1878, Stoke receive Bradford on 16 August. Having vacated Burnden Park as First Division champions, Bolton inaugurate their new, 25,000-capacity home against Everton on 30 August. Derby’s more romantically named Pride Park Stadium has risen on an inner-city site. Its initial capacity will be 30,000, with Wimbledon the first visitors on 13 August. With Olivier Peslier (10-1, Tote) and Lanfranco Dettori (10-1, Tote) also well supported, Richard Quinn is the first British jockey in the list at 20-1 (Coral).Gary Stevens, the American whose book of rides is growing almost by the hour – Anvil (Chesham Stakes) and Tykevor (Bessborough) were added to the list yesterday – is a 40-1 chance with Ladbrokes.. Bolton Wanderers, whose futuristic Reebok Stadium (above) is taking impressive shape on a greenfield site at Horwich, are one of five clubs for whom the phrase “building for the future” has assumed a meaning beyond the traditional close-season platitudes, writes Phil Shaw. Normal service seems sure to be resumed this year and anyone prepared to bet otherwise can get 25-1 about a second successive blank week for Warren Place, writes Greg Wood.

The Tote, who opened a book yesterday on how many of Royal Ascot’ s 24 races Cecil will win, make three and four successes the joint-favourites on 5-2. They then bet 4-1 about two winners, 11-2 against five, and 8- 1 against six or more, with none at all their 25-1 outsider. With a team which includes Bosra Sham and Sleepytime, the last two winners of the 1,000 Guineas, and last year’ s Oaks winner, Lady Carla, there would surely be few takers for the whitewash even at twice those odds.
The Tote’s confidence is good news for Kieren Fallon, Cecil’ s stable jockey, who is an odds-on chance to win the trophy for the meeting’ s leading rider. He is 4-5 favourite with the big three layers, with fellow Irishman Pat Eddery his closest pursuer at 5-1 (the Tote).

Another compatriot, Christy Roche, was the subject of a “substantial” bet with Ladbrokes yesterday, and was cut to 10-1 from 20-1. Last year’s Royal meeting was not one to remember for Henry Cecil, who did not saddle a winner for the first time since 1974. In punting terms, though, the best may be saved until last, since TOTEM DANCER (nap 5.30) is about to encounter the test of stamina which she has long demanded.. London News, the much-travelled South African challenger, will be the choice of some simply because of his novelty value, but there is no reason to think that his best form would place him within half a stone of Henry Cecil’s filly.Cecil saddles the favourite, Ali-Royal, in the Queen Anne Stakes, but a far more rewarding choice could be Amrak Ajeeb (2.30), who is ideally suited by waiting tactics in a fast-run mile, which is all but guaranteed with Gothenberg in the field.Diligence (4.20) will also be at decent odds to give Paul Cole his third Coventry Stakes in seven years, while Generous Libra (4.55), another from David Loder’s yard, can upset the favourite, Kennemara Star, in the Britannia (with Kaiser Kache drawn high, the far side is the place to look for vital early pace). He deserves to be backed at those odds, and the fact that today’s field is eight-strong makes an each-way bet an option for the naturally cautious.Favourites can be a risky proposition at this meeting, but it is hard to see any of Bosra Sham’s (3.05) rivals causing an upset in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes. David Loder’s colt was fourth behind Entrepreneur, just a short-head behind Poteen, who is among his rivals this afternoon. Given that so little distance separated them there, and that Poteen’s stamina might just be stretched by today’s very stiff mile, it is a surprise to find the latter colt at around 100-30 this morning, while Starborough is available at 8-1.

A win for either would be an important milestone for their respective trainers, since du Royer-Dupre has yet to saddle a winner of any sort in England, while O’Brien is seeking his first success at the Royal meeting. But it may prove premature to write off the milers’ Classic which is the original and, generally, the best.The form of Entrepreneur in the Newmarket 2,000 Guineas has certainly struggled to stand in recent weeks, and the winner’s disappointing run in the Derby was yet another blow, but one horse who ran well on the Rowley Mile and has won since – in Group One company, too – is Starborough (next best 3.45). Racegoers in the Royal enclosure generally refrain from cheering, but there may well be something among today’s attractions which will raise excitement even there.The danger for punters, of course, is that it is difficult to resist a bet at every opportunity, though if your betting is going to get compulsive, it might as well be here, where the markets are so strong that, as with the Cheltenham Festival in March, top-class performers are available at unusually large prices. The downside, however, is that an eight-runner event like the St James’s Palace Stakes includes five, perhaps six, perfectly credible winners, so you could back four of them and still emerge empty- handed.One apparent odds-on chance, though, is that today’s most valuable prize will be leaving the country, since Daylami, Alain du Royer-Dupre’s French 2,000 Guineas winner, and Desert King, who took the Irish equivalent for Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle yard, will be jostling each other for favouritism at around 2-1. The supporting acts include Bosra Sham, one of the most popular Flat horses in training, a horde of promising juveniles in the Coventry Stakes, some of the best milers around in the Queen Anne, and two handicaps of staggering size and complexity. Consequently, low returns or losses will be borne with more patience than is normally the case. Indeed for as long as I can remember there have been rich businessmen ready to acquire national newspapers – the Fayeds at the moment, and before them, “Tiny” Rowland, the late Robert Maxwell, Sir James Goldsmith and the Cadbury family, which owned the News Chronicle, later absorbed into the Daily Mail.